It's a Boy!

Testing out these brand-new legs!

The mare is being very kind, attentive, and affectionate

I picked up the mare Thursday, watching her carefully for several days while she went through the first stage of labor, including lying down and pushing quite a bit.  She then appeared to relax for a day and stop labor, she went back to eating and standing.  I wondered if she had just been overly stressed by going through the auction, and she might hold on long enough for the rescue to come get her and transport her to their place.  However, when I went out to feed this Sunday morning there he was - a cute brand new baby boy!  The mare is being wonderful with him.  He is hungry and looking for the udder and milk, and as he clumsily searches for breakfast the mare will reach around, shove him gently with her head, and angle him to the right spot for eating.  She also nuzzles him and nickers at him quite a bit.  Such a good momma, and she has been easy to be around, letting me handle her and the foal despite her being so unused to human ways.  She patiently ate her hay as I stripped the stall of soiled bedding and put down fresh straw, refilled water buckets and such.  Then I was able to give her a bit of a spa treatment this afternoon, giving her a good grooming with a rubber curry to pull off all the loose hair.  She is awfully thin, but was so pleased to be scratched all over.  She wiggled her lips, making the "ooooo" face, and nuzzled me back as a pasture courtesy.  When I got to her haunches she swayed side to side for just the right scratch on her buns.  Such a sweet girl.

Enjoying the spa treatment

Momma's coat after grooming with photobomb from Baby

Miles supervising snacktime

Such a good dog to help out

My border collie, Miles, has been very helpful with this new addition.  When I was cleaning the stall he went in and met the baby (with momma's approval of course).  They both STRETCHED their necks out and just lightly touched noses, and Miles licked his muzzle.  Baby jumped back and Miles jumped back, then they both got really close to each other and rubbed heads. 

Hungry baby horse lips

One other curious set of behaviors has been the actions of my herd manager and big warmblood gelding, Samson.  He came to me as an 8 year old stallion that was not halter trained, he had been through the same auction as this mare several years before I found him in a back pasture in Nunn.  Samson has been beyond vigilant, standing watch over this mare.  She is quarantined from other horses because of her unknown history, but Samson can see her.  He stands at the fence, leaving only for meals, and won't let the other horses get near her.  I have to wonder if he is recognizing that she will come into a foal heat (he has been a gelding for years now, but he had bred mares before I found him and he became a gelding), or if he is somehow explaining to her that he too had been through the rough time she did at the auction, and that now she is in a good place.  I've seen him coach other horses through the transition from the madness of the auction or feed lot to life at Bit of Honey Training, and he has a special way about him with these stressed horses. 

Just a touch of white on his side, one white stocking on his back leg, and what appears to be blue eyes!

I have two other mares on the property who are now riding horses but have been broodmares in the past.  The first day that this new mare arrived she stared toward the older mares, and the older mares talked to her quite a bit, nickering and whinnying more than usual when a new horse arrives.  I suspect they were talking her through what was going on with the pregnancy situation.  Then, this afternoon while the baby was napping he was talking in his sleep, making little noises and finally waking himself up with a whinny.  One of the older mares heard it, and she just BELLOWED that maternal cry of "baby, I'm HERE!" 

Me holding Baby for a friend's child to pet him

My last thought for the day is how poetic and sweet it is that my Cecil passed away in this stall just a couple weeks ago, and today a new life was born in the very same stall.  Makes my heart feel good.